KEY POINTS:
Sky Television is defending its choice of movies on its new Sky Movies Greats channel, saying films such as Scary Movie and Coyote Ugly deserve to be classed as "great".
The new channel started last month, promising to bring "the best of the last decade's most memorable blockbusters
to the existing movie channel lineup".
But not everybody agrees. One disgruntled Sky subscriber, who didn't want to be named, was less than impressed.
"To launch a channel called "Greats" and then have Deep Impact, Coyote Ugly and Scary Movie 1 and 2 as the feature films for the month is a joke."
A senior lecturer in Auckland University's department of film, television and media studies, Dr Misha Kavka, said it would be difficult to label any of the 15 sample movies from the channel as greats, but Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels came close.
"I think what they mean is movies that have proved popular among youth. Why they didn't call it Sky Movies Youth Market I don't know."
What constitutes a great movie?
"There are the well-known great films of classical Hollywood like Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz. Martin Scorcese films, nearly anything by Quentin Tarantino ... These are all great films and have some combination of good narrative, good acting, good camera work."
Sky's director of communications, Tony O'Brien, defended the choice of movies. He said it was fair to call the channel "Greats" because the movies shown had been hits.
He would not debate what constituted a great movie, as it was "an entirely and incredibly subjective issue".
"Our team of expert programmers make that selection and work through those titles that are available. They know the industry inside and out and they've seen thousands of movies. That's why we employ them and that's why they are good at their job."
Mr O'Brien said Oscar-nominated movies such as The English Patient and Titanic were to screen soon.
"But there are also genres for other audience types and styles such as for a younger audience.
Scary Movie, Coyote Ugly and Cruel Intentions are successful, hit movies but obviously they are aimed at a much younger audience."
Great or Grate?
15 movies available this month on Sky Movies Greats (ratings out of 10 from the internet Movie Database, which claims to be the biggest movie and television website.)
The Mexican: 5.9
Thirteen Days: 7.3
The Legend of Bagger Vance: 6.3
Scary Movie: 5.7
Scary Movie 2: 4.4
15 Minutes: 6
Deep Impact: 5.9
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels: 8
Space Cowboys: 6.3
Donnie Brasco: 7.6
Any Given Sunday: 6.5
Flashdance: 5.5
Coyote Ugly: 5.3
Miss Congeniality: 6.1
Cruel Intentions: 6.6
